Our “home” has been secured, the flights are booked, and the car is reserved.  It’s been three long years but we’re finally on our way back to France – this time for a full month!

Part of the fun is in the research and preparation, and I’ve been at it for a number of months.

Back in the spring of 2014, long-time friends Rosanne and Rudie expressed an interest in the type of holiday we had in Burgundy, the last time we were in France, but neither one of them wanted to organize it.  So we agreed they would join us during our planned upcoming vacation back in France and I would do what I love to do – plan a holiday.

Initially, Rosanne wanted to visit Soufflenheim, in Alsace near the German border, where her ancestors are from.  Then, she and I spent an evening engrossed in the VRBO website together, looking at castles and chateaus for the fun of it and discovering portions of them were surprisingly affordable.  After touring all over France, she ended up not really caring where we went.  And Rudie just wanted to know where and when.

So, I spent many, many hours surfing and dreaming, and brought a short list of 12 places to Steve, from all over France, and he picked….. Brittany!

Brittany is a northwest region of France that kind of hangs out into the Atlantic.  We will live in Trevou-Treguignec, along the northern Granite Rose Coast – named for its rugged pink coastline. There are kilometres and kilometres of coastline to explore, complete with sandy beaches and islands.  The southern side is woods and valleys so we’ll have a little bit of everything.

Regardless, we can expect charming villages, fabulous markets, interesting history, great food and drink, not to mention good friends to share it with.  And, we’re going to the Mont-St-Michel Abbey that’s on the front cover of the book at the top of this blog!!! (No lavender fields, though, as they are a wee bit further south than where we’ll be.)

We chose the spring for two reasons – 1) we like that time of year where the weather is reasonably good, the days are long, the kids are still in school, and it’s considered off-season so prices are lower, and 2) it conveniently coincided with a wedding that Rosanne and Rudie are going to in Holland.  And, between sharing our plans with others, and hearing about Rosanne’s and Rudie’s traveling companions to Holland, we picked up two more couples to join us and share the adventures.  Maria and Joe will arrive with Rosanne and Rudie for the first week, and our other long-time friends, Jan and Peter, will spend 10 days with us in the middle.  As a result, we’ve ended up with a three-bedroom, 2-bathroom home, approximately 800 metres from the ocean – apparently, you can see the ocean from the upstairs bedrooms.  The owners have been very responsive and reasonable, and the many comments on the VRBO website have been positive and encouraging.  We are excited to call this our home for four weeks this spring.  Can’t wait to see it in person!!!